The story of Essex
by ArcAngel 1-1
Summary: The story of two twins and there journey through China, with their buddies in the Marines, and their ship.
1. Chapter 1

I was 12 year old when NATO declared war on Russia, when the Russians nuked Paris, killed 80000 people. Charlie was 19 then, he looked mom in the eye and said "I'm going to show Ivan a lesson". When Vince, my brother and I woke up the next morning, he was gone. Charlie was one tough SOB, Vince and I was sure he was going to teach Ivan a lesson like he said. Three month later, mom sent us to grandpa's house. We knew he was dead. Grandpa told us about it. He was in Kharg Island, Iran. He was leading an advance when Ivan got the jump on his squad. He popped out to throw a grenade and a piece of shit 500 metres away popped him in the eye. Everyone was worried about mom; she lost dad in Iraq, and her grandpa in Vietnam. She pulled through though.

When China invaded Suez, Vince and I talked, we talked a lot. We were both eighteen now, old enough for recruitment. But if we died, mom wouldn't pull through. We didn't want to join the army, honestly too dumb for the Air Force, there wasn't enough action in the Coast Guard and half the Navy needs the combination to Davy Jones Locker. So we joined the Marines, just like Charlie did.

We couldn't bear to tell mom. We left her a note. We couldn't let the Chinese win, they'd cut 90% of our trade already, and those Russian's were gonna fucking pay for taking away Charlie.

My name is William Crowe; this is the story of me and my twin brother Vince.

All the weeks of hiding in our room, plotting how to join, we finally pulled it off, we placed the note on the kitchen table, then left at night, we practically slept on the train, when we got to Los Angeles, we enrolled, we thought we would have to pass a physical and weeks of training, they just signed our names down and said 6.30 don't be late. When we came back from sleeping with a bunch of friendly homeless guys in town, I'll never forget them. When we came back, we saw the USS Essex for the first time. When they said Aircraft Carrier, I expected them to be bigger, but we still marvelled at the AH-1Z's, F35's and RCB's.

One day we heard the general quarters alarm.

That's were the story begins.


	2. The Test Range Pt 2

The sweet silence of my dreams was what had kept my sanity all those years. All those years of mom yelling at us to stop slacking off, Charlie and Dad gloating about being better at Gridiron and Call of Duty.

So when Vince woke me up I was pretty displeased.

"Get up bro" Vince yelled shaking me with one hand and clutching an MP7 with a folding grip and a holographic sight.

"General Quarters get up" he continued as it slowly dawned on me that the Essex was under attack, I could picture in my head J-20's dropping bombs on us.

"GET UP!" Vince yelled back louder, the urgency much clearer in his voice.

I got up and placed my baseball cap on with my headset on top, I slept in my uniform for this kind of thing, and it payed off.

I grabbed my MP7, with my Holo sight and raced through the door with Vince in close pursuit, we finally ran up the last set of stairs and raced across the flight deck, were masses of soldiers were, well, massing near the helicopters.

"Get into a Transport Helicopter, all will be explained at a later date, this is not a drill, you will receive a parachute before boarding a helicopter" The loudspeaker repeated as Vince and I shared a confused glance at each other.

Parachute? The fuck is this bro?" He asked as he took a a parachute of an Officer handing him one.

I couldn't answer, I just shrugged and boarded a UH-1Y Venom, along with Vince and five or six other guys, two more jumped in and manned the door guns. Secretly I wanted them to spin up and attack something, but wishing is one thing, reality is another.

We flew for what seemed like an hour of pure silence, until the co-pilot glanced back from his seat.

"Almost there now guys" he said, shooting us a smile.

I glanced out and watched as about 3 UAV's circled around this tiny little island, it was more of a Sandbar than an Island, but about fifteen helicopters were about to fly over it it so it must be pretty freaking important.

"JUMP JUMP JUMP" the pilot yelled, and just like that about 50 people were in the sky jumping towards a sandbar.

I wasn't thinking about that, I was thinking what would happen if my parachute wouldn't deploy, it took 8 seconds of pure terror, but I pulled the parachute, I felt the jolt of my body stopping and saw my legs swing into my peripheral vision, soon I landed, I took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the night sky. But as the others landed around me I could make out some things, in front of me was a test range, but beyond that was a large building.

"This is the Test Range fellas" A voice that appeared from nowhere yelled out.

I fumbled around my webbing to find a radio that was yelling out to me.

"You will eat together, sleep together, live together and work together until the USS Essex sails by to begin the invasion. Around the Island is many vehicles used by our forces, if you can drive it, and not crash it, have fun"

And with that he signed off.

"That's it?" Vince yelled out

"Apparently" I muttered back in disbelief.

Someone decided to walk off towards the test range, it seemed pretty unreal, not like disbelief unreal, but just tacky cardboard cut outs like from cop movies from the 70's.

We walked towards the building, all 50 off us. Some of us didn't have torches, but I had a flash light on my M9, so off I went into the building, it was creepy as hell, there were blood splatters and ripped up bits of paper everywhere, at one point I expected the Slenderman to jump out. So I was the first one to Chicken out and leave, but not by much judging from how fast everyone followed me out.

"No beds" I muttered to Vince, who sighed and walked off angrily.

Eventually we found some vehicles, we all stopped there, it was an assortment of every kind of vehicle the military had, everything from Quad Bikes to Main Battle Tanks, and some weird things I didn't even know off. Some guys made a dash for the Tanks and such. And decided they would sleep there, smart buggers. That practically started an all out race for a place to sleep, including a fistfight or two.

At that point I could really feel the chill of the midnight air, or whatever time it was air. I glanced behind myself and saw an AAV-7A1 AMTRAC, I sprinted towards it, catching the attention of some of the unlucky losers that didn't get a tank to sleep in.

By the time I got there, at least three other guys were behind. I opened the back doors and blocked the entrance with my hands.

"All rights reserved, boys" I stated they finally reached me

"Fuck you man, it's cold out here" a man with a boonie hat and a scarf over his mouth yelled back angrily.

"Look, there's enough room for all of us, then some, let's just all come in" another one with goggles and a full face balaclava said as he climbed in, before I pushed him back down.

"All rights reserved, piss off" I stated again

"Or what" the boonie hat guy challenged

"My MP7, M9 or Bayonet, you choose" I shot back

Eventually they all left and Vince showed up too.

"We had enough room, why'd you make them leave" Vince asked

"I'll start trusting people when I get shot at" muttered as I drifted to sleep.


End file.
